Dtsch. Entomol. Z. 61 (2) 2014, 105–119 | DOI 10.3897/dez.61.8142 museum für naturkunde A taxonomic revision of Parallelodemas Faust from South China (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Baridinae), with notes on sexually dimorphic characters Jens Prena1, Runzhi Zhang1 1 Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, P. R. China http://zoobank.org/B449C54C-A8A8-4B00-826A-ED41A3BE9D53 Corresponding author: Runzhi Zhang ([email protected]) Abstract Received 19 June 2014 Accepted 19 August 2014 Nine species of Parallelodemas Faust are reported from China. In addition to the pre- Published 17 September 2014 viously recorded P. impar Voss, we found P. docile Faust, P. vicinum Faust and the fol- lowing six species newly described herein: P. dimetans sp. n., P. feae sp. n., P. petilum Academic editor: sp. n., P. plumosum sp. n., P. setifrons sp. n. and P. tumens sp. n. Parallelodemas tarsale James Liebherr Voss from Java is transferred to Lepidomyctides Yoshihara and Morimoto (comb. n.). Lectotypes are designated for P. docile, P. imperfectum Faust, P. perfectum Faust, P. tar- dum Faust and P. vicinum. Several morphological modifications with unknown functions Key Words are documented, illustrated and discussed. Males of some species have special setae on rostrum, antennal scape and mesotarsus. A medially notched epistome apparently oc- weevils curs in both sexes but seems to wear off in females, probably during the preparation of sexual dimorphism oviposition sites. The mandible is unusual in having a convex, edentate inner face and exodontous mandible incisor-like structures on the outer face. Oriental Region Introduction Material and methods Among the currently accepted 548 genera of baridine wee- Our study is based primarily on specimens of the Institute vils, Parallelodemas Faust is notable for having numerous of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IZCAS), morphological peculiarities. Faust (1894) noticed modified which were collected during the past 60 years. Their col- setae on the male mesotarsus of two of his five species and lecting data are transcribed herein to Pinyin (original Chi- a loss of the two distal tarsites in another [actually present nese spelling is given for primary types) and we provide but minute]. Voss (1941) commented on the basally bifur- the unique IZCAS database identifiers in square bracket cate prosternum of female P. impar Voss, and Marshall behind the collecting date. Additional specimens were (1945) and Morimoto and Yoshihara (1996) on apparently studied from the following collections: Forschungsmuse- abducent mandibles. To this one may add the frequently um Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany (AKMB); Natural worn female epistome and marked sexual dimorphism of History Museum, London, UK (BMNH); Bernice P. Bish- further body parts, such as rostrum, antennal scape and eye, op Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii (BPBM); Canadian Muse- in at least some species. However, this interesting genus is um of Nature, Ottawa, Canada (CMNC); Naturhistorisches taxonomically challenging because of great morphological Museum Basel, Switzerland (NHMB); Jens Prena person- similarity of the species, pronounced sexual dimorphism al collection, Rostock, Germany (JPPC); Museo civico and scarcity of material in collections. China is presently di storia naturale Giacomo Doria, Genoa, Italy (MSNG); the only country with noteworthy collections of Parallelo- Senckenberg Naturforschendes Museum, Frankfurt a. demas. In this paper, we revise the Chinese species and Main, Germany (SFFM); Senckenberg Naturhistorische document taxonomically important characters of the genus. Sammlungen, Dresden, Germany (SNSD); Zhejiang A & F Copyright Prena J. & Zhang R. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which per- mits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 106 Jens Prena & Runzhi Zhang: A taxonomic revision of Parallelodemas Faust from South China... University, Zhejiang, China (ZAFU) and Zoological Insti- tute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia (ZIN). The above codens are used to refer to col- lections in the text. A total of 154 specimens was exam- ined. Faust returned approximately half of the type series of his newly described species to L. Fea (the owner) and shared the rest with L. v. Heyden. Whenever possible, we designated as lectotype a male from the material returned to Fea and ignored the unpublished designations in Faust’s retained material, which were made by museum staff sub- sequent to the acquisition of his collection. If not provided on the label, coordinates of collecting sites were determined with GoogleEarth. Approximate collecting sites of Fea’s specimens, from his 1885–89 journey to Myanmar, were estimated based on his travel itinerary (Vinciguerra 1890; Fea 1896). Descriptions are structured hierarchically, i.e., constant generic characters are not repeated in the descriptions of species. We found no evidence for a species with a sexually dimorphic epi- stome. However, the female epistome apparently wears off so we described it only for the male. Measurements of length were taken with an ocular micrometer in a ste- reomicroscope. Total length was measured from the ante- rior margin of eye to the abdominal apex in dorsal view. Length-width ratios of the penis are approximate values which do not take into account curvature. Illustrations were prepared from images taken with a Micropublisher 5.0 RTV digital CCD camera mounted on a Zeiss Ste- REO Discovery V12 or a Canon EOS 650D on a Leica DM2500 compound microscope. Aldus Freehand was used for vector graphics and Adobe Photoshop for pix- Figure 1. Parallelodemas docile, dorsal habitus (length 5.2 mm). el-based artwork. All genitalia illustrations were prepared from specimens collected in China. Explanations for Parallelodemas from certain grass- and sedge-associated, morphological terms can be found at http://weevil.info/ primarily Palaeotropical Baridinae with similarly slender glossary-weevil-characters. Our weevil classification fol- rostrum and elongate body. The latter complex includes lows Oberprieler et al. (2014) except that we maintain Eumycterus Schönherr, 1838; Trephognathus Marshall, Baridinae and Ceutorhynchinae as separate subfamilies. 1945; Neosharpia Hoffmann, 1956; Caenobaris Nasreddi- nov, 1980; Lepidomyctides Yoshihara & Morimoto, 1994 and several species currently placed in other genera. Taxonomy Misplaced species. Yoshihara and Morimoto (1994) recognized that Parallelodemas tarsale Voss, 1937 is a Genus Parallelodemas Faust species near Eumycterus and Lepidomyctides but they had very little material of those genera. We studied five Parallelodemas Faust, 1894: 306. Type species Parallelo- Oriental species near P. tarsale (BPBM, IZCAS, SNSD, demas perfectum Faust, by subsequent designation ZIN) and several species of Caenobaris, Eumycterus, (Morimoto and Yoshihara 1996). Gender originally Neosharpia and Trephognathus Marshall from Africa, female, changed to neuter because of the grammat- Central Asia and India. While Eumycterus and its prob- ical gender of the Ancient Greek base word δέμας able synonym Trephognathus can be distinguished by (Alonso-Zarazaga and Lyal 1999). vertically moving mandibles (Marshall 1945; Korotyaev 2002), we were unable to recognize or to confirm the ge- Diagnosis. Species of Parallelodemas can be recognized neric limits of the remaining species. We transfer here P. by characteristically elongate body (Fig. 1), medially tarsale to Lepidomyctides in the widest sense, as Lepido- notched epistome (which often is worn in females) and myctides tarsalis (Voss), new combination. exodontous mandibles with evenly convex inner face Redescription. Habitus: Total length 3.0–7.8 mm, width (Fig. 3). Superficially, they resemble species of the conod- 0.8–2.2 mm; body slender subcylindrical (Fig. 1); integu- erine subtribe Phaenomerina (see Morimoto 1961), but ment black or brown, appendages and ventrites sometimes those have incrassate, ventrally dentate femora and larger rufous; vestiture uniform or locally condensed to short eyes. The characters on the mandible and epistome separate vittae, setae either simple, squamiform, scalloped, deeply dez.pensoft.net Dtsch. Entomol. Z. 61 (2) 2014, 105–119 107 Figure 3. Rostrum of P. plumosum, male (left) and female (right), dorsal view, showing apex with epistome and mandibles. Figure 2. Rostrum of P. impar, male (left) and female (right), lateral view. agreeing with modal arrangement of subfamily (Zherikhin and Gratshev 1995). Abdomen: Ventrites unmodified, not split or plumose. Head: Subspherical, contour often slight- or indistinctly sexually dimorphic. Sclerolepidia small to ly warped at rostral base; eyes large, slightly encroaching medium-sized, densely packed, digitate. Stridulatory devic- on rostrum, bulging or flush with head contour, dorsally es absent. Male genitalia and associated structures: Tergite separated by width of rostrum at base; frontal fovea small VII without plectra for stridulation; tergite VIII shorter than to moderate; rostrum moderately elongate and slender, wide, distally without transverse carina; sternite VIII later- slightly curved, female with apical portion slightly inflated ally with sclerotized pyriform area, medially desclerotized; (Fig. 2); epistome produced and more or less notched, often sternite IX variously strongly